Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez expressed his deep dissatisfaction with the referees’ decisions following his team’s 1-0 defeat to Inter Milan in the third round of the Champions League at the San Siro stadium, and said that we faced a “real injustice”.
Barcelona faces the risk of a second exit from the group stage in the Champions League for the second year in a row, following it finished third in Group C, 3 points behind the Nerazzurri and 6 points behind leaders Bayern Munich.
Hakan Kalhanoglu scored the goal of Turkish Inter from outside the area in the added time of the first half, and Barcelona failed to equalize throughout the second half.
A creeping ground shot from Hakan Calhanoglu gives Inter the lead over Barcelona #Champions League #Liverpool_Rangers pic.twitter.com/UCRErxBmN6
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) October 4, 2022
The match witnessed a great deal of controversy due to the decisions of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), the most prominent of which was when he canceled Pedri’s goal for Barcelona in the 67th minute of the match to eliminate his team’s hope of a draw due to the presence of a handball on his colleague Ansu Fati.
After the goal was canceled, Xavi exploded in the referee objecting to the decision following his dream of a tie was lost, which prompted the referee to warn him.
Xavi said following the match that “the referee should explain why these decisions were made, whether he made mistakes or not. This would make them more human.”
“I’m really unhappy, I feel there is a real injustice,” he added.
In the 90th minute, the Slovenian referee Slavko Venisic refused the demands of the Barcelona and Xavi players to award a penalty kick following Dutchman Denzel Dumfries touched the ball with his hand in the penalty area. Despite the intervention of the mouse and summoning the referee, he did not count anything.
Tariq Diab: The intervention of VAR means there is a penalty kick
Ayman Jada: Simone Inzaghi’s look says it’s a penalty
Yasser Al-Qahtani: VAR reduced errors, but did not eliminate them#Champions League #Barcelona_Inter #Inter_Barcelona pic.twitter.com/VK2jnBExJ1— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) October 4, 2022
In this context, sports analyst Tariq Diab said on the “BN Sports” channels that “the penalty kick that the referee did not calculate is correct,” and he added that just calling the “video” technology to the referee means that there is “suspicion of the existence of a penalty kick.”
In turn, sports analyst Yasser Al-Qahtani confirmed that Barcelona deserves “a penalty, and whoever does not calculate it means that the “mouse” referee does not see well,” and continued that “Inzaghi’s view (Inter coach) decides that the shot deserves a penalty.” But Al-Qahtani explained the referee’s decision by saying that “the ball touched the player’s head before his hand.”
For his part, sports analyst Mohamed Aboutrika confirmed that it was a “clear penalty.”
